Namaste! LMS

Description

Namaste! LMS is a learning management system for WordPress. Supports unlimited number of courses, lessons, assignments, students etc. You can create various rules for course and lesson access and completeness based on assignment completion, test results, or manual admin approval.

Namaste! LMS lets you assign different user roles to work with the LMS and other roles who will manage it.

How to remove the links to next / previous lessons and courses from lessons / course pages?

By default most WordPress themes add such links under every post. So these links come from your theme and we can’t control them from the plugin. You can create custom post templates in your theme for the Namaste! LMS course and lesson pages. Copy single.php into single-namaste_lesson.php and remove the next / previous links in it. Then copy the file also as single-namaste_course.php if you want to use the same design for the course pages. More information about creating custom post type templates is available here.

If you want to display links precisely to next / previous lesson in a course you should use the shortcodes [namaste-next-lesson] and [namaste-prev-lesson] or their Pro alternatives. Have a look at the Help page under your Namaste! LMS menu for more information on these shortcodes.

Reviews

Choosing this LMS has been one of our smartest moves as a company! Not only does the software work better than most of the big boys, like Sensie, but the prompt responses to our support requests solidified this business relationship.

I tested several lms for wordpress. Namaste is the one I decided to keep using because is simple and very efficient. I can rely on basic but strong functions and if I need to improve the tool I can easily develop pieces of code.

I was about to create a custom learning experience from scratch before I discovered Namaste! LMS.
It is very easy to use–courses are basically sequences of wordpress pages that can be accessed from the user’s wordpress profile. It works well with WATU quizes, and you can add your own javascript code to make lessons interactive.

Interested in development?

Changelog

Version 2.2.8

Added custom post type namaste_homework – such a post will be automatically created when you add assignments to a lesson to ensure easier handling of “no dashboard access” LMS.

Fixed bug: when module is completed the associated course ID was not stored in history

When a non-admin has manager’s access to the LMS but no access to the Namaste! Settings page, they will have “To-Do” as their default page for the Namaste! LMS menu.

Attribute “class” added to the shortcodes [namaste-first-lesson], [namaste-next-lesson], and [namaste-prev-lesson] to allow you passing a desired CSS class to the generated links.

Added option to not use the rich text editor on certificates. The purpose is to prevent it from messing custom HTML code and allow inserting external or embedded CSS.

Improved Konnichiwa! integration: if there is no access to the course from Konnichiwa, don’t display the enroll buttons in My Courses page

Added option to restrict enrolling courses by user role

Added sorting and “number per page” selection on Manage Students and Mass Enroll pages.

Added option to tag student to course enrollments. This allows you to tag students for example by year of enrollment, source, campaign, etc – anything that could help you search these students.

Version 2.2

Added shortcode for the My Gradebook page.

Added Plugins & Help page to the role-based access control configuraiton.

Added option to restrict access to Watu / WatuPRO exam when it has been assigned to a lesson until that lesson is started.

On the Lessons page added link to exam result from Watu / WatuPRO when exam is required for the lesson.

Added shortcode [namaste-lesson-status] to display the status of a lesson.

Added parameter “compact” to the namaste-gradebook shortcode to allow more compact display when the horizontal table is too wide and won’t fit well.

Added options to set expiration date or expiration period to certificates

Improvements to [namaste-course-lessons], [namaste-module-lessons], and [namaste-course-modules] shortcodes. When used inside a lesson or module, they will show the corresponding lessons or modules for the parent course / module.

Shortcodes for next / previous lesson will now work in module pages as links to next / previous module.

Version 2.1

Added “show_grade” argument to the [namaste-course-lessons] shortcode to display the assigned lesson grade.

Added “public_view” argument to the [namaste-gradebook] shortcode. When the parameter is set to “true” or entirely missing, the gradebook is visible for everyone. Set the parameter to “false” to apply user-access permissions so teachers / managers see only students in their groups (if any), students see only their own gradebook, and non-logged in users see no gradebook at all.

Added user email in students list and export.

Added option to automatically enroll students in course when they register on the site.

Solutions to assignments now can accept multiple file uploads.

You can now define a set of accepted file extensions for solution file uploads.

Added enrollment or completion date on the Manage Students page.

Added class ‘namaste-list’ to all ordered/unordered lists generated by shortcodes.

Now you can choose to store solution files in Uploads directory instead of the database. This is not secure, do it if the content is not sensitive.

Version 1.9

Added a new lesson action and filters that will allow you to add custom requirements for lesson completion. The action is “namaste-lesson-requirements” and the filters – “namaste-lesson-other-requirements” and “namaste-lesson-other-todo”. Check the developer’s docs at http://namaste-lms.org/developers.php for more information.

Added configurations for the default “You need to be logged in” messages so you can provide login link or link to page with subscription plans etc.

Added two new hooks that allow other plugin to add filters to the student search form in the Manage Students page

You can now export student’s table from the Manage Students page

Added text attributes to the [namaste-enroll] shortcode that let you specify custom buttons text. See the internal Help page for details.

Added shortcode to display grade for a lesson (get the shortcode from your Gradebook)

Added option to automatically grade a course based on its lesson grades

Added Course filter on the Manage Lessons page. The Manage Courses page now has a link to manage the lessons in the course, which leads to filtered Manage Lessons page for that course.

Introducing Modules as an intermediate level between courses and lessons. These can be enabled optionally from the Namaste! LMS Settings page.

Added shortcode generator for the [namaste-course-lessons] and [namaste-module-lessons] shortcodes.

Version 1.8

Added [namaste-search] shortcode which generates search form and searches in courses and lessons (accordingly to user’s enrollment). Non-logged in users can only search the course contents.

Added option to automatically link the course from each lesson page. You can configure this from the Namaste! LMS Settings page.

Added shortcode namaste-condition which allows you to display different content on the course page depending on whether the user is enrolled or not. See the “Shortcodes” section in the Add / Edit Course page for more information.

Added Buddypress support in lessons.

Added option to set date interval when solutions to assignments will be accepted.

New option on the “Fine-tune role settings” page lets you hide “My Courses” link for a given teacher’s role.

Added new shortcodes: [namaste-num-courses], [namaste-num-students], [namaste-num-lessons], [namaste-num-assignments]. Check the plugin Help page for more details.

Added the optional attribute “enrolled=1” to [namaste-mycourses] shortcode. You can use it to limit this page to displaying courses the user has enrolled to. Note that it will display even courses with pending or rejected enrollment, frozen access, and completed courses.

Added link to preview a certificate. Note that the preview will show the variables as variables. Only certificates that are really earned (no previews) will have the variables replaced with real data.

Version 1.7

Added option to unenroll from a course. This is configurable per course level from the Edit Course page.

Added compatibility with the new free Instamojo integration plugin (see the Namaste Settings -> Other payment options section for a link)

Made some improvements to notes / feedback on assignments and their navigation

Added pagination on the Manage Students page

Added option to automatically transfer Watu or WatuPRO quiz grade into a lesson grade (in case you use a grading system)

Grade for course and lessons will now be shown in the Manage Students page if grading system is used

Added column “points” for student to course, lesson, and homework relations. It will be used to store all points collected in the given homework/lesson/course. Will be shown at a later version when some data is accumulated.

Use the lesson Excerpt box to show content to users who don’t have access to the lesson. This will be shown in addition to or in some cases instead of the default text which appears in these cases. You can also show excerpts in the namaste-course-lessons shortcode.

The namaste-todo shortcode now accepts post_type and post_id arguments. This allows you to expose the to-do items of a course or lesson outside of the course / lesson page itself.

Added option to mass enroll students in a course

Version 1.6

Added [namaste-earned-certificates] shortcode to display certificates earned by the user on a given course. Can be used on course page or elsewhere by passing course_id.

Added Sandbox mode for testing paypal payments

Added filter to make sure unenrolled user does not see comments on a lesson

Added page that shows all users who earned a certificate along with a link to see / print their certificate

Added option to show lessons in blog and archive pages

Added information about the “mark completed” button in the lesson to-do popup box

Added shortcode [namaste-course-link] that creates a link to the course a lesson belongs to

Switched the lesson order to ID (order of creating) rather than title based in couple of places

Added custom column with LMS points in the “Users” page of your administration. The column appears if you choose to use points system. There is also a link to cleanup the points earned of every user.

Made start / end dates of course and lesson use the timezone settings. Added also start / end times.

You can now set desired paper size and orientation when creating certificates with the PDF bridge. Requires PDF Bridge version 0.7 or newer.

Version 1.5

Added elaborated access options for the roles that can manage the LMS

Certificates will now be earned each time when the course is completed even if the same certificate was earned previously

Added option to change the course and lesson URL slugs from “namaste-course” and “namaste-lesson” to your custom slugs

Added “custom currency” option in the payment settings page

Submitting solutions to assignments on a lesson is not allowed if the lesson access requirements are not satisfied.

Added option to un-enroll student from a course

Now you can generate PDF certificates using the free PDF bridge plugin

Added variables for course description and certificate ID in the certificates. Improved the certificate displaying.

Added option to redirect to specific URL after Paypal payment

Added option to include “enroll” shortcodes outside of course page

Improved the redirect URL after course enrollment (now defaults to the course page)

Added [namaste-mycertificates] shortcode and made the certificate display accessible outside of wp-admin

Version 1.4

Advanced users only: You can now create your own versions of all Namaste views for high-level of customization

The [lesson-todo] shortcode will now automatically recognize if you have published the [namaste-assignments] shortcode for this lesson and will display the front-end link to submit a solution for the to-do assignments. This way you can entirely hide the back-end if you wish.

Version 1.3

The URL slugs “namaste-lesson” and “namaste-course” are now translate-able so you can use your own URL rewrites

Links to assignments are now generated in [namaste-todo] shortcode

“Accept file upload as solution” is finally implemented

fixed problems with PDFs and other large files when uploading solution to assignment

Added arguments that let you control the order of lessons in [namaste-course-lessons] shortcode

Fixed possible bug with passing course ID through Paypal

Improved the Paypal error logging and added a “View errorlog” link on the main payment settings page (link visible only if there are errors)

Added [namaste-next-lesson] shortcode to display a link to the next lesson in a course (please see the Help page inside Namaste menu)

Similarly, added [namaste-prev-lesson] to show the previous lesson link

Improved course cleanup – now homework solutions are deleted on cleanup. If you use watu / watupro exams you can select to cleanup them as well (from the Namaste Settings page)

User can be enrolled in course using username as well

Fixed small issue with role restriction on enrolling

Version 1.2

Avoids duplicate completion on lessons and courses

Allow using [namaste-course-lessons] inside a lesson page of the course

Added new shortcodes to allow exporting part of the functionality outside of the user’s dashboard. Shorcodes added: [namaste-mycourses] and [namaste-course-lessons]. See the internal Help page for more details.

Added Help page and information about Namaste! Reports in the Plugins/API page